Distractions, Games, and Other Things
by Green Bunny
Summary: A series of non or semi-connected one-shots. Primarily BBxRae but there're other things in there, too.
1. Distractions and Games

**Originally posted to Tumblr. I cleaned it up a little bit and put parts one and two together. I've also altered my take on Azarathian from the original. The first is "The Distraction" in Raven's perspective, the second is "The Game" and is Beast Boy's.**

oOo

"Work is hard. Distractions are plentiful. And time is short." Adam Hochchild

oOo

It had been a long day of chores for Raven. Her morning began with meditation at daybreak, laundry in the morning, and dishes by lunchtime. Somewhere between the laundry and dishes Beast Boy had awakened but (much to her surprise) left her alone; relatively speaking. He had come up to her while she was working on the dishes to deposit an empty cereal bowl into the sink. She had scowled at him for adding another item to her cleaning collection, but he was unfazed. The changeling merely smiled disarmingly and kissed her on the cheek. Rewarded by her embarrassed blush, he sauntered off to take a shower.

Raven was curled up on a couch, book in hand, when she heard movement near the door. Irritation immediately sparked to life. She could sense that a game was about to begin, one in which she had no intention of playing. Gradually, the door opened. A tall figure shrouded in shadows leaned in. Raven shot the man a glare over the edge of her book. Was he really going to pester her when she was two chapters from the end?

A distinctly male voice spoke. "Rae? Are you in here?"

"You know good and well I am." Came her disgruntled reply.

"I'm done with my shower."

She shrugged her shoulders and snuggled closer into the cushions of her couch. "Congratulations. You're officially clean."

"So…" Raven tensed as the shadow man skulked past the door into the room. "Whatcha doing…?"

She frowned at her pages. Her concentration was already fracturing with each word he spoke, made worse by that too-curious tone she knew all too well. "…I'm _trying _to read."

"But I don't want you to read anymore. I want you to pay attention to me."

She gave an exasperated huff. "Why didn't you beg for my attention _before_ I sat down to read?"

His infuriatingly simple reply set her teeth on edge. "I dunno."

The empath could hear the man shuffle closer and she raised her book higher to block her view of him. If she didn't watch him stalk her like a predator; if she pretended he wasn't there, then maybe, just maybe, he would let her finish her book in peace. Her eyes caught the tail end of a sentence on the paper beneath her fingertips and she focused hard on those words. It wasn't exactly where she had left off but it was close enough.

"_Physical pleasure is a sensual experience no different from pure seeing or the pure sensation with which a fine fruit fills the tongue; it is a great unending experience…"_

_Sonnets of Orpheus, don't let me down. _She mentally begged the book.

The book was almost starting to win when warmth blossomed near her knees. Someone rearranged her legs until they had uncurled from her chest and fell down to dangle off the end of the couch. Shoulders bullied between them until she was forced to accommodate the man before her. She recognized the position. He was preparing to strike, she knew it. Her fingers gripped the binding of her book tighter.

"…_which is given us, a knowing of the world, the fullness and the glory of all knowing. And not our acceptance of it is bad…"_

"It's not going to work…" She muttered to the pages, knowing full well that if she looked up into the sparkling green eyes mere inches from hers that the game would be lost. What had that last sentence said again?

"What's not going to work?" His tone was exceptionally innocent as big fingers shifted near her waist. Raven shivered in anticipation.

"…_the bad thing is that most people misuse and squander this experience and apply it as a stimulant at the tired spots of their lives and as distraction instead of a rallying toward exalted moments."_

Why was her stomach cold?

Raven gave a surprised squawk and started batting at the man's back with her paperback. His dexterous fingers had undone several of the buttons on her shirt before she had ever noticed. Her eyes immediately snapped downward, small hands fighting a losing battle to keep her shirt on. His green skin contrasted with the flickering white of her digits as she fought to pry them away. The man gave a triumphant cackle as the last buttons gave way.

oOo

"Love is an unusual game. There are either two winners or none." – Vikrant Parsai

oOo

What Raven never learned (and Garfield never revealed) was how far in advance he actually planned his little game. It began the night before when he would start his reconnaissance. His surprisingly acute observational skills would catch her casting furtive glances from the bookshelf to himself. He would see the wheels turning in her mind. Did he know about the new book she had purchased? Would he be too busy to notice if she stole off for a few minutes to read it? Just after dinner he'd watch her eyes dart about the common area, mentally cataloguing the series of daytime chores she would have to complete in order to clear up the necessary free time to read. He would watch for the tiniest upward quirk of her lips to signify her satisfaction in her daily schedule.

Then he would wait.

It was a remarkably simple process lulling the (understandably) paranoid empath into a false sense of security. He slept a little later than usual. Took a tad longer to get ready in the morning. His absence at breakfast would be all the indication she needed that she had been granted a special chance at free time.

Then, after his shower, he struck.

Beast Boy cut her scent to where it led to the spare room she'd chosen as her hideout. He chose to hum a little tune to himself outside the door to announce his presence. When the bulb from a nearby wall sconce flickered ominously he nearly chuckled.

Oh yeah, she knew what was coming.

Just before entering he quickly recited the alphabet backwards in his head to keep the empath from feeling out his amusement too soon. One more calming breath completed his almost-meditation before he poked his head through the opening.

"Rae? Are you in here?"

Thank God her eyes didn't shoot laser beams or starbolts. If she had, the look in her amethyst gaze would have most certainly killed. Fortunately, the only thing they could do was narrow, entertaining the hell out of him.

The changeling had left his gloves off for the game and he was forced to dig one of his claws into the meat of his palm to keep the smug smile off his face, especially at her huffy replies.

"I'm done with my shower."

He loved the way his patently obvious conversations made her hackles rise. She so _hated_ pointless conversations. Her eyes moved away from his face to focus on her book but the rise of her shoulders and the way she burrowed a little further into the couch confirmed her rising ire.

He didn't bother to pay attention to her snippy response as he shouldered his way past the door and into the room. It wasn't important in the grand scheme of things. Beast Boy simply needed to keep her talking, stringing her irritation out as long as he could. His simplistic replies made her resist just enough to get his predator instincts singing for the hunt.

Raven had her book up in front of her face now, using it as a shield to shut him out. Her knees pressed close to her chest. The little defensive ball she had made of herself might have deterred some, fortunately for him he found her legs quite fetching.

As he tugged her legs down and slid between her knees the second portion of his game began: the "points" portion. The changeling gave himself points for each of his favorite reactions. Single points if she swore at him in English. Double if she swore at him in Azarathian. And triple if she used his full civilian name.

Calloused palms rested on either side of her hips, just close enough for his unnatural warmth to seep in. Slowly, they slid up her sides to splay out across her belly. He marveled at her smallness. The way he could spread his hands out, touch his thumbs together, and half his fingers could curl around her sides comfortably.

Her scent changed and he watched color crawl from the exposed edge of her collar bones and upwards along the elegant plane of her neck. He could see her mouth below her book press together into a determined frown. Her knuckles turned white where her slender digits gripped the pages.

Garfield grinned and dropped his eyes down to where his first two fingers toyed with the buttons on her shirt. She seemed awfully busy reading her book. She wouldn't notice if a few fell loose…

"Garfield Mark Logan merne a komis havela allerinzi ka cekam!"


	2. Handsy

I'm going MIA on vacation for the next week so I thought I'd throw this up on the website in the meantime.

0

Robin swore the JLA never dealt with the kinds of trouble he had.

"Star! Star! You gotta help me!"

"Certainly, friend Beast Boy, what is the—meep!"

At Starfire's surprised yelp Robin instinctively looked up from his bird-a-rang and nearly dropped his screwdriver at what he saw. The green changeling was there rapidly rubbing his palms up and down her exposed belly. The Boy Wonder's jaw dropped and a strangled gurgle issued forth.

Before he had a chance to think Beast Boy had pulled his hands away, staring down at them in utter dismay. His shoulders hunched suddenly, head bobbed forward, eyes darting about. Dread surfaced in the former acrobat's mind as he realized the boy was looking for something.

The changeling did an about-face, glittering emeralds landed on the back of a blue hooded head. The empath might have felt the distress marinating the room but the book in her hands was apparently so engrossing she had purposely chosen to ignore the chaos.

"Beast Boy, what the—"

In shocking blaze of green the boy moved from his spot near Starfire to the couch where Raven sat. He stood over her, palms raised in supplication, a look of horrified determination splashed across his elfin features. The empath had time to shoot him a confused glance before the hands descended.

_Oh no_.

Green hands met gray thighs with a resounding slap. He moved his hands furiously against her legs for several seconds, at which point the common room grew deadly quiet.

Then everything exploded.

Three appliances in the kitchen and the bird-a-rang were enveloped in black and simultaneously burst. Anything not nailed down to the floor began to float. Raven hovered over the couch bleeding tentacles. They lashed out and grabbed up the changeling, hauling him close to a four-eyed face. Her voice snarled in triplicate language no one understood. Beast Boy made a garbled attempt at speaking but was quickly cut off by another round of screeching from the Azarathian. A black circle appeared to their left and the green boy was promptly hurled through it.

The demoness hissed and vanished through the ceiling in a flash of black. Everything that had been floating before instantly crashed back to earth.

…

Four hours later as Robin attempted to glue a fragment of his bird-a-rang back together a soaking wet (and curiously singed) Beast Boy plodded through the common room doors. He opened his mouth to ask the obvious question but was swiftly interrupted.

"Lotion."

"Wh-What?"

"Lotion." The changeling continued. "I spilled a bottle of lotion on my hands while I was cleaning the bathroom."

"How does…?"

"I didn't want to waste it. So, I tried to find someone with enough skin to rub it off on."

Robin clapped a gloved hand to his forehead and groaned. "Ugh. Just go find Raven and Starfire and apologize. Right. Now."

"Roger that." With a lazy salute the soggy green boy turned and headed out the door.

"This never happens at the JLA. I'm sure of it." He muttered at his bird-a-rang and reapplied another broken piece.


	3. Feathers Were Meant for the Skies

Title is a line from the song "Home" by Gabrielle Aplin. It's my favorite go-to song for whenever I'm homesick.

O

Starfire felt confined. The tower's wall seemed to close in on all sides around her soul, stifling it. Her head, weighed down by invisible pressure, kept her eyes glued to her plodding feet. One by one they navigated the last few stairs to the roof, the heaviness in her heart grounding her.

She brushed a stray red lock from her face as listless fingers grasped the knob. The door swung open allowing the cheery sunlight to stream in. Despite her best efforts, the star's rays always managed to lift her spirits. Today was no exception. Her lips quirked up in a half smile more befitting of Raven as she stepped out onto the roof.

A drifting shadow on the left caught her attention. Peridot eyes quickly ascertained the source of the dark already turning towards the source of the noise she had caused.

"Friend Raven. I am sorry. I was not aware you were up here. I shall leave and retur—"

A pale gray hand raised to stop her. "Don't."

The princess hesitated, another apology formed on her lips as her brow creased.

Raven beat her to the punch. "You're upset."

"I…" The empath shook her head, tapping a temple with a delicate digit. "Must I explain myself? Come here. Sit."

Right. She felt things. Starfire had forgotten. Raven always said she… what was it? Broadcasted? That's right. She was a loud "broadcaster."

"I am sorry, friend, I forgot." She muttered as she moved to settle next to the pale girl.

The sorceress's shoulders hunched, lips pressed in a tight white line. "Don't apologize. Explain." She ground out, then seemed to rethink her tone and added more gently. "You'll feel better if you tell someone."

Warmth tinged her cheeks. "Of course. You are right." Her eyes shifted away from the sparklingly magnificent view of the bay to focus on her long orange fingers with their sharp, red painted nails. She spent several minutes going over her words in her head, wanting the clearest version the first time around. The princess really wasn't in the mood to feel both sad and aggravated at the confusion produced when something got lost in translation.

Slowly, Starfire released a breath and spoke. "I am… Sick with the home."

"You're tired of the Tower?"

Xhal! Would her words never come out right the first time? "No. I am... missing... my home. Today is Nel' tak, the Tamaranean celebration of home and family."

"Ah. So that's it." Raven tilted her chin up slightly and closed her eyes. The backs of her hands rested on her knees, palms up, though she no longer maintained her lotus pose. Silence passed between them for several minutes before the empathy cracked an amethyst eye at her. "You're homesick. Are you missing Galfore?"

Starfire sighed as she interlocked her fingers. "Yes. Him and... Everything."

Raven hummed and shifted in her seat. "I'm sorry…"

The princess glanced up from her hands to regard her friend. "Do you not miss your dimension as well?"

The empath chewed on her lower lip for a moment before answering. "No, not really. Not the way you are."

Starfire sat up little straighter in her seat surprise pulling her small round brows upwards. "How can you not miss your home? You are not from here."

She sighed, apparently expecting her shock but unsure of how to respond to it. Raven ran her fingers through her violet hair before responding, "That place—Home-didn't hold a lot of kindness to me. I was raised in isolation. Not even my mother could show me affection. It was a cold, lonely place most of the time."

Her heart ached for her teammate. "I, too, have known many hardships in my life… but I have also known much love in my home life. I am sorry."

A tiny Raven smile graced the empath's lips. "Don't be. Azar was one of the few to show me any warmth back then. When I left I learned something: I didn't miss a place. I missed a person. Home, to me, was a person."

"So, to you, home is Azar?" The princess smiled a little, her eyes turning skyward as she thought of her dear Galfore.

Raven's head turned towards her, amethyst eyes glittering in the light of the sun. "Home is anywhere my heart is."

For a second, her eyes darted away from hers, fixing on the door to the roof with the same little smile she rarely ever revealed for anyone. The Tamaranean felt her excitement grow.

"Friend Raven, do you have a home for your heart here?"

The smile quickly vanished along with her eyes as her hood phased back over her head. She turned her face back towards the view of the bay but not before the princess saw the faint blush staining her cheeks. Oh yes, her friend had a very special home for her heart, indeed.

A sly grin gave Starfire's features a distinctly feline quality. "Friend Ra—"

The empath stood abruptly and stalked towards the door, muttering apologies for the time in a garbled mess of English and Azarathian. The roof door was encased in black and flung open, nearly ripped off its hinges in the process. Beast Boy tumbled out in a green heap after it.

Spread-eagled on his back, he blinked up at the dark Titan, a sheepish look on his face. "Uh. H-hey, Rae…ven."

Blushing furiously, the empath said something incomprehensible and portaled out. Starfire watched in amusement as the changeling scrambled to his feet and fled back through the door. When it was quiet once more she floated up and away towards the exit.

"Perhaps a visit to the home of my heart is in order." She hummed to herself as she flew away.


	4. Rainbow Repercussions

This is all my father's fault. He caused this inspiration… fit.

0

It was the shriek heard round the world. A high pitched thing, grating metal and wolf's howls mixed in with a little bit of dying souls for good measure. The tower shook. Car alarms thirty miles away blared. A hundred newborn babies burst into tears.

And somewhere, over the bay, a green blur was ejected from a black portal, trailing unmanly squeals in its wake until it was swallowed up by water.

It all happened in the span of a second. Cyborg had just enough time to stand from the couch and look about in consternation. Black tendrils shot out from the floor enveloping his feet. His head bounced off a couch cushion as he was whipped up into the air and flipped upside-down.

Four glowing red eyes met his, punctuated by the gleam of pointed teeth. "Who did it?"

Cyborg was glad the blood didn't really rush to his head anymore as he gawped, trying hard not to stare too closely into the bloody red orbs. "Wh-what?"

"He stole and hid three of my books, bounced on my bed so hard that it destroyed the springs in my mattress, literally climbed the walls of my bedroom, recited lines from Practical Demonkeeping whilst suspended ceiling, pulled every article of clothing out of my dresser bureau, AND TWEAKED MY NIPPLES! TWICE!"

The demoness chest heaved from the exertion of delivering her tirade without a single breath. She gave his legs a shake with her powers, then drew in a ragged breath before continuing. Raven's multilayered voice held a disturbingly sibilant quality as her words whistled past her fangs.

"You and I both know there's only one thing that makes him that crazy. So, tell me. WHO GAVE BEAST BOY SKITTLES?"

He would have laughed, he really would, if he wasn't convinced Raven might rip off his arms and legs and beat him to death with them.

"Cyborg, I can feel your emotions. You know who did it. Tell me. NOW!" The empath gave him another shake for good measure.

Well. Let it not be said that Cyborg wasn't a survivor.

"IT WAS SPEEDY OH GOD IT WAS SPEEDY! I TOLD HIM NOT TO DO IT WHILE YOU WERE HOME PLEASEDON'TKILLME"

The floor rushed up to meet his face as his feet were released. He never saw the dark Titan vanish, but his sensors did pick up a horrible, gurgling cry from the tower's visitors' lounge. His internal computer queried him as to the merits of checking on the status of the distressed person producing said noises. Cyborg chose to ignore it.


	5. Normal

Tumbler prompt from the illustrious Xaphrin. I wouldn't consider this "canon" to any of my stories' universes.

0

They were staring. They were all staring.

"But…but… _how_?" The changeling gasped, the words choked on his throat on the way out.

Raven glared back at the group of heroes, clutching the squirming bundle to her chest. Tiny pink fingers reached out from the blue burrito to fist the cotton of her hospital gown. Sharp green eyes immediately snapped to the source of the movement, raking over the wrinkled digits.

"I dunno, man." Cyborg never removed his gaze from the blue glare of his laptop. His metal fingers danced over the keys in a blur.

"I mean… she turned _green_. Remember that? Twenty-two weeks?"

"Of course I do. I was there." The metal man huffed, digging his pinky a little harder than was necessary into the enter key.

The empath shifted her elbows, receiving a muffled grunt from the infant. Gray fingers glided over the wispy swirls of hair on his scalp, so fair and fine it was nearly invisible at a distance. She wasn't really listening, still busy marveling at the little creation they'd managed with none of Trigon's taint. His newly made (completely innocent) soul burned white-hot to her senses.

Cyborg sat back and shifted the laptop towards his green friend. "Look, see this?"

Beast Boy shuffled closer and bent to peer at the monitor. Two tiny squares of blue reflected back in his eyes. "Yeah, so?"

He tapped the screen with an index finger. "You know how we thought she turned green because the baby was getting infected with Sakutia?"

Green hair shifted as his head bobbed a nod. Raven noted the feather-soft texture of the boy's hair was most certainly a gift of his father's.

Cyborg rubbed his chin. "Well, what if her demonic blood was fighting the disease?"

The changeling rocked back onto his heels. "Fighting it? So what, you're saying he doesn't have Sakutia?"

"Is he green?"

"Well, no."

Beast Boy scratched the back of his neck, emerald eyes darting to the tiny—pink—infant, eyes sealed shut. "So if he doesn't have Sakutia, and Raven can't sense Trigon's influence then does that mean he's… normal?"


End file.
